


Those Who are Lost and Found

by Ecstone517



Series: What it Means to Fly [2]
Category: Dream SMP- fandom, Hermitcraft RPF, Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst, Avian Charles | Grian, Avian Tommyinnit, Grian is a sleepy boi - Freeform, Not Canon Compliant, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Piglin Hybrid Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Wingza, Wither Skeleton Hybrid Wilbur Soot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-18 02:28:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29482206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ecstone517/pseuds/Ecstone517
Summary: A broken family has the chance to come together again.Tommy thinks that he is going to die but instead he finds himself in a new world, but he's not alone anymore.Grian thinks that his family has forgotten him, but he may be able to get them back.
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s)
Series: What it Means to Fly [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2165490
Comments: 13
Kudos: 234





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a sequel to Lament of the Lost but you won't have to read that to understand what it is going on here.

Tommy Innit has a concerning number of regrets for a sixteen year old. Not the generic regrets that all teenagers have like saying something stupid to a girl or making a fool of himself in front of a crowd. Tommy’s list of regrets includes things like arson, creating a country, trusting his insane brother, not stopping his father from killing said insane brother, and not shooting Dream when he had the chance. Especially that last one because if he had shot Dream during that dual then he probably would have avoided 90 percent of the problems he’s faced sense then. And he probably wouldn’t be trapped between the green psycho and a lava lake with no armor on. And yet that is not his biggest regret as he stares down death. His biggest regret is never learning how to fly. Maybe that other one should be higher on the list given his current situation, but nothing can seem to dethrone his regret at never having learned how to use the giant appendages that have been on his back for literally his entire life.

It’s not that Tommy had never tried to learn. He’d heard somewhere once that birds learn to fly when they’re parents push them out of the nest. Only him and Wilbur had been home at the time, so he took matters into his own hands and jumped off the roof. That was how he died for the first time when he was six years old. He can still clearly remember how angry his father had been when he saw him hours later. He’s reminded of it every time he speaks to his father because it never really went away. Even now more than ten years later he still sees that anger in his father’s eyes every time that they meet. Nothing is ever said about it but Tommy knows that it’s because he’s a disappointing son and that if he were more like Techno or Wilbur it probably wouldn’t be there. That was one of the biggest reason’s that he started hiding his wings in the first place.

Now no one but Tommy actually knows about his wings. Excluding his family, of course they know about them, it’s just that they are as content to pretend he doesn’t have wings as he pretends to be. Either that or they have honestly forgotten. He wouldn’t be surprised if they had. There have been moments where he himself actually forgets he has wings. Moments like this one perhaps. He doesn’t really blame himself forgetting sometimes. He has been keeping them hidden sense practically the moment he learned how. Sure, it makes his back hurt and comes with the feeling of his chest being constricted constantly, but when he’s hiding them for months at a time those pains just melt into the background. Honestly it’s been ridiculously easy for him to forget about sense joining the Dream SMP, likely because he seems to be in constant pain sense joining the server even without the added effect that hiding his wings has.

Tommy’s thoughts are pulled back to the dire situation at hand as Dream takes another step forward, laughing menacingly. He adjusts his one handed grip on his enchanted netherite axe as if having slightly better hold on it will make any difference when he swings it into Tommy’s armorless skull, taking his last cannon life.

“You’ve run out of places to run.” Dream practically sings.

Tommy tries to take a matching step back, but Dream isn’t lying to him this time. There really isn’t anywhere for him to go.

“Dream.” He announces with as much false bravo as he can muster, though the terror in his voice is much more prevalent, “You wouldn’t kill me. You’re the one that said that we need each other.”

The manic cheer in Dream’s voice is gone when he responds, replaced with a hatred that leaves Tommy somehow perfectly capable of imagining the sneer on the admin’s face despite his trademark mask.

“That was before.”

He punctuates with another step forward.

Tommy damn near steps off the edge of the netherack, just about losing his balance plummeting into the lava below.

“I had a lot of time to rethink it while I was in the prison Tommy. A lot of time to realize that I _don’t_ need you.”

“If you kill me the others will know.” Tommy tries, knowing full well that at this point it’s a flimsy defense at best.

“So what. You think that they’re even going to care? They won’t. No one cares about you Tommy. No one. Not Tubbo. Not Techno. Not Wilbur. Not even your own father. You know that don’t you.”

“They care.”

Tommy can’t quite seem to convince himself of that though. Things had been better between most of them sense Dream got locked up. Being around Techno is still tense so _he_ probably doesn’t care, but the others? Tubbo and him are being friendly again, but he still has nightmares about the day that Tubbo exiled him. Even Phil, who had raised him for his entire life, didn’t care about Tommy and he’s known that for longer than he cares to admit even to himself. He hadn’t known anyone else on the server long enough to honestly say they truly had any reason to care about him. He had thought they cared before and every one of them had betrayed him.

“They don’t.” Dream states confidently, he’s almost close enough to strike at this point, “But it doesn’t matter if they do because I don’t need them either. If they try anything I’ll kill them, just like I’m going to kill you.”

Dream raises his axe and Tommy throws his hands up to try to defend himself. It’s in that moment that his limited survival instincts flare up and those wings he had forgotten he has burst from his back. There’s no telling who it surprises more. Dream recoils at the sudden appearance, stumbling a few steps away, he stares for a few moments before coming back to his senses. For Tommy the shock of the wings is forced to be short as the added weight on the very edge of the netherack has it crumbling beneath him and suddenly he’s falling face first towards the lava below. The air is quickly getting hotter and he’s flailing about desperately trying to stop his fall. This half works as his wings manage to catch a searing wave of heat and he glides slightly over the lava, but it won’t be nearly enough to keep him out of the bubbling orange death pool for long. In a stroke of genius that should have been obvious Tommy flaps his wings and manages to get just a little higher, at the cost of dipping the tip of some of his feathers in the burning sludge. The feeling is similar to breaking a nail just a little too far down, it hurts but not with the same intensity that it would if it had been something with more nerve endings in it, more like a pulsing ache. This does however cause him to wobble in the air. An effect that likely saves his life as at that moment an arrow flies past his face close enough to graze his ear.

He hears Dream shout in frustration behind him, “You lucky bastard!”

He’s not so lucky with the next arrow, it imbeds itself into his leg and a short screech escapes him before he’s able to bite it down. He knows that Dream isn’t going to stop at that and he needs to get out of the line of fire. In a last attempt to save himself he forces his wings to raise higher and push the air below them. He rises a few blocks higher and then tries to bank to the left. All this manages to do is completely throw off his already terrible balance in the air and send him straight into the wall of netherack on that side. His left wing takes the brunt of the force and Tommy screams at the pain as something snaps. There is nothing that could save him as he falls into the lava with a heavy splash. His screams are cut off as he begins to drown in the lava as well. His last thought in this world being about how he wishes he had tried harder to learn to fly.

Tommy doesn’t realize the pain has stopped when everything goes black. Nor does he when he catches a glimpse of sky for a split second before being dragged down into water by a column of bubbles. He also doesn’t realize that thanks to those bubbles he can breathe in the water that he still thinks is lava. It takes being manually tugged out of the one block water stream, falling to the ground, and coughing up nothing for him to understand that he’s not burning anymore. He’s breathing sporadically, body doing a poor job at remembering how to suck in air. He might not be burning or drowning but he is suffocating himself.

A hand lands on his shoulder and he throws himself away from it. He falls to the ground in the process but this doesn’t’ keep him from scrambling back until he hits a wall. He isn’t processing the scene in front of his eyes; all he sees is there is someone that he doesn’t know. All he can think about this person is ‘enemy’. And all he can do is put as much distance between them as possible. The lack of proper breathing begins to take its tole a little black spots begin to dance around his vision. It becomes hard to focus on the ‘enemy’ in front of him.

It doesn’t help when another person appears out of a nether portal. Whether he’s sliding away from the person or the portal doesn’t matter because all that happens his Tommy backs himself into a literal corner. The walls are cold and uncomfortable against his wings but he doesn’t dare move away from it. The two people stay a good few blocks away from him, he doesn’t notice their restraint. One of them is in full Netherite armor and Tommy finds himself trying to watch that one more closely. It’s hard to do that with the way his head is swimming, the black spots in his vision blocking out what might be vital pieces of information. Tommy does manage to see that this figure is wearing a mask and the instant that clicks in his brain it tells Tommy that masks mean Dream. Dream of course means certain death. He pushes himself further into the corner. He vaguely picks up on the fact that the two people are talking to him but what they’re saying doesn’t register.

The masked one steps forward, and Tommy makes a noise somewhere between a squeak and a hum. The figure pauses. It stares him down a moment and then looks up when droplets of water begin falling on the figure. Tommy doesn’t notice them either. His panicked gaze only moves upward as a dark mass grows in the water. Then it explodes out of the water above, splashing everyone in the room. The mass lands on the ground with enough force that Tommy’s surprised it doesn’t crack the floor. Then it stands. There is something powerful about this new figure. It has massive grey wings spread out behind it. It’s whole body seems to be moving with it’s breaths. Shaggy Light colored hair falls around it’s face. Then Tommy catches sight of blue eyes, they are intense. At first fear flashes through him as he sees anger in these eyes. These are the eyes of someone familiar to him, he knows them without a doubt in his mind and he launches himself at the figure starring at him with them.

Tommy’s mind immediately pieces everything together and conjures an image of his father. For as strained as his relationship with his father is he had always turned to the man when he was truly terrified. He isn’t in the frame of mind necessary to understand that the person he all but tackles is not his father. His addled mind can’t notice that the figure is too short. Or that his hair is darker than it should be. Doesn’t pick up on the outfit that it wears being something his father has never worn. All he knows is that he feels secure here with the man’s wings shielding him from the other two. Tommy grips him desperate for safety. Breathing starts to become easier and he becomes more aware of the sounds around him. The spots in his vision only grow bigger though.

The last thing he hears before the world goes completely black is, “You’re going to be okay now Tommy.”

Somewhere in his head he understands that the voice is not that of his father. Regardless, whoever it is feels familiar, comforting, and above all else safe. He blacks out thinking that whoever is holding him won’t let any more harm come to him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grian reacts to Tommy showing up on hermitcraft

Grian’s mind goes blank the moment he sees the message on the communicator.

**TommyInnit has joined the server**

Tunnel vision sets in instantly and he can’t pull his eyes away from the screen. He isn’t hearing anything Mumbo is saying to him and he definitely isn’t thinking about pulling a prank anymore. The only thing on his mind is the fact that Tommy is here. On Hermitcraft. He doesn’t know why or how it happened, but he is going to. His breathing has all but stopped and his heart had already began racing. He greedily reads every message in the chat waiting for the one that would feed him the information that he desperately needs. Then finally it comes, but all Grian could see when reading it is red.

**Xisumavoid:** _Everyone please stay away from spawn if possible while I investigate our unexpected visitor._

Stay away? STAY AWAY! How dare he? How dare Xisuma ask him to stay away. Xisuma, the _Only_ person that he has _Ever_ told the truth about his family. The only person that could even remotely understand what it means for his youngest brother to be on the same world as him. Daring to ask Grain to stay away? It doesn’t matter that the message was sent to the entire server and not just him. It doesn’t matter that Tommy had apparently not been invited to the server and thus as admin Xisuma has a responsibility to find out how he had gotten there. It doesn’t matter that Grian hasn’t spoken to Tommy or any other member of his family in more than a decade. The only thing that matters is that Tommy is here and Grian is not going to let anyone keep him away.

Grian is in the air before he even knows what thoughts are going through his head.

Had Xisuma not sent that message, or had he sent one to Grian first with a little more information, Grian would have been calmer. He would have kept a level head, made his way to spawn at a reasonable pace, and given Xisuma time to ask a few questions. He may have even decided not to show up at spawn at all given that seeing his brother when he knows that Tommy doesn’t even know who he is would only be painful.

That’s not what happened though.

No, instead Grian dived into spawn from above like a maniac, lucky not to die in the process. He doesn’t even register what he has done at first. The ache of his wings and burning of his lungs aren’t even a background worry for him when he first lands. His vision is still coated in red at the audacity of being asked to stay away. That is until his eyes lock with matching a matching pair. In these mirrored eyes is a moment of terror, then a wave of relief. Before conscious thought has even returned to his mind Grian has Tommy hanging off him. Tommy’s shaking and barley holding himself up, clinging to Grian as if his life depends on it. Grian instantly wraps his arms around him, half to stop the boy from falling to the ground, half to prove to himself that this is real. The reality of everything begins to set in. The ache in his back and wings at having flown here as quickly as possible makes them droop slightly. His heavy breaths come more deliberately. His wet hair sticks to his forehead and neck. His clothes and wings are dripping wet as well, making them feel heavy. But the most important thing is Tommy in his arms. His little brother is in his arms. Grian’s tired and sore wings wrap around them as an extra wall of protection. Tommy starts to become heavier. His body relaxes and the only thing keeping him up becomes Grian. Blue eyes disappear behind eyelids. Grian adjusts his hold on his little brother and settles the two of them to the ground so that he can’t drop him.

“You’re going to be okay now Tommy.” He promises as the boy’s breathing evens out.

For a precious moment everything is quiet. The past fourteen years slip away and Xelqua is thirteen again holding a sleeping three year old after a long day of playing. He’s at home with his family without a worry in the world. All is well. This is not how things can stay though.

“Grian?”

His head snaps up to face Xisuma. His expression morphing into a glare instantly, the message asking him to stay away immediately resurfacing in his mind.

“Back up.” Grian growls.

Xisuma does take a step away. As does Scar, making a squeak sound in the process and bringing Grian to realize that he’s been there in the entire time. Scar’s presence manages to bring a little logic into Grian’s train of thought. He smooths his expression into a more neutral one.

“Sorry.” He states, not completely convincingly.

“It’s fine.” Xisuma responds more sincerely, “I was going to message you as soon as I figured out what was going on.”

“I wasn’t willing to wait.”

Grian’s voice holds a bit more edge than he meant it too and a good deal more than is deserved by the admin. After all Xisuma hadn’t done anything wrong. It’s Grian that’s overreacting. He knows that, but it’s hard not to when it’s concerning his family. Grian’s family is not something that he has been willing to joke about sense the day he lost it. Every atom in is body is screaming at him to protect any part of it he can get his hands on at any cost.

He glances down at Tommy again. He can see past the shock of him being here now. Tommy is unsurprisingly bigger than the five year old he had been last Grian saw him. But he’s still so obviously a kid. A tall and gangly kid with less meat on his bones and larger bags under his eyes then he should have. Which is all the more reason for concern as he spots scars littered across his skin. Respawning and potions heal most things without leaving a mark, scars mean having to suffer through bad injuries and let them health naturally. Grian doesn’t want to image how he’s gotten so many. That protective part of him demands for him to shield him from all his pain. Another part of him weeps at having not been there for him when he so obviously needed it. Grian knows logically that he couldn’t have been, but guilt rarely listens to logic.

“How did this happen?” Grian asks aloud.

The question is opened ended on all sides. How did tommy get here? How did he get so many scars? How did their family get picked apart in the first place? Who he’s asking is just as up in the air. He may very well be asking himself, or Tommy who has no way of answering at the moment. It’s Xisuma that tries to answer though.

“I don’t know. By the time I got here he was already panicking.”

“He was panicking when he got here.” Scar states, once again reminding them that he is there.

Scare shifts at the sudden attention he has and continues.

“He didn’t seem to know where he was. I had to pull him out of the bubble column. Then he freaked out a backed himself in a corner. I tried to help but I don’t think he could hear anything I was saying.”

“How did he even get on the server?” Grian asks looking back at Xisuma expectantly.

“I whitelisted him. After our talk.”

Xisuma seems hesitant to say more. It’s hard to tell what he’s thinking sense he always wears his helmet but Grian can imagine him glancing over at Scar. It’s considerate of him that he doesn’t want to say anything that Grian hasn’t told anyone else.

“I….Thank you.”

There’s not much more that he can say then that. His thoughts have leveled out enough to know this wouldn’t even be possible without Xisuma. If he hadn’t whitelisted Tommy he could have wound up anywhere else after whatever happened that brought him here. Based on what he’s heard and seen Grian is positive that whatever lead Tommy here was not good.

“Ummm.” Scar once again pulls the attention his way, “I’m still a lot confused about everything going on. I mean, who even is this, is he even okay right now?”

“I think he’s fine. He doesn’t appear to have any physical injuries. His breathing has steadied. I think he just passed out because of the shock.”

“Right, and my other question?”

“His name is Tommy. He’s….” The words lock up in Grian’s throat.

A big part of him just want to say it. He’s my brother. But the smaller louder part of him is telling him that Tommy doesn’t know that. That however raises the question, why did Tommy grab for him? He wants to feed into the inkling of hope that Tommy somehow does remember. That he somehow knows who Grian is to him. He can’t afford to though, knowing that when it’s not true it will hurt too much.

“He’s from my home world.” He finds himself saying instead, it’s not a lie, but it feels like one.

“What are we supposed to do?” Scar asks, “We can’t just stay here until he wakes up. Can we? I mean, I guess we could.”

“I’m not going anywhere.” Grian says firmly, “The last thing I want is for him to wake up in another new place with no idea what’s going on.”

He can tell from the look on Scar’s face that he’s put to much of his own fears into that statement. Scar looks like he wants to ask questions, but luckily he refrains. Questions will come though. There will be no avoiding it. Grian can already imagine what it will be like, having to explain himself to his friends. How he knows Tommy. What happened in his home world. Everything that lead up to this moment. For the time being though he cards his hand through Tommy’s damp hair and allows himself to be relieved that at least one of his family members is safe.

“Scar, why don’t you go tell the other’s that Tommy is here but not currently up for visitors. And tell everyone that we’ll explain what I can when the time is right.”

“Okie doki.” Scar says, voice a little strained but willing to do as he’s been instructed.

Once Scar is gone Xisuma settles down on the floor as well.

“Are you okay with people knowing about what happened?”

“Do I really have a choice? Tommy is here. He may not remember me, but I remember and I am not going to just let things lie anymore. Look at him. He should be sixteen right now. He looks like he’s been carrying the weight of the world. I don’t know where he came from, but I don’t want him to go back. If this is how bad he is what about the others? Are Techno and Wilbur even alive? Is my dad? Last time I saw them I ran. I ran because it hurt that they didn’t remember me, but maybe if I stayed this wouldn’t have happened.”

“You can’t know that.” Xisuma states, “If you had stayed then maybe you would be in the same situation right now. The important thing is that he’s here, and he’s alive. You can protect him now, even if he doesn’t know who you are. But to answer your earlier question, yes, you do have a choice. What happened in your past is still your secret to tell. The others will understand. We can tell them the same thing that you told Scar, Tommy is from your home world. You don’t have to say what happened there, if anyone asks you can just tell them you don’t want to talk about it. If that doesn’t work you can send them my way and I will handle it.”

“You don’t normally act all admin like.”

“I don’t normally need to. But it’s my responsibility to protect the members of my server. That includes you and Tommy as long as he’s here.”

Grian nods his thanks and relaxes. He doesn’t know what he’s going to do or say after Tommy wakes up, but he won’t worry about that for the moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo, it's finally here. I've rewritten this chapter no less then three times and finally got to a point where I'm happy with it. 
> 
> Dialog is hard and I'm going to try to get my characterization of these people down a bit better in the future. 
> 
> I'm so glad that people have been enjoying this story. Seriously thank you all for reading. 
> 
> As always please let me know of any spelling errors or odd parts and I'll try to sort them out. Also I live and die for comments.

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter focuses on Tommy but chapters to come will not. 
> 
> Just as a warning I do no have an upload schedule and have a habit of jumping around fandoms so it's possible this may not get updated for a while, I do have plans for at least the next two chapters though. When this does get updated I'll edit the previous chapter though so please point out any spelling errors or confusing bits and I'll try to fix them.


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